Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuxUyQUnKvU&hd=1
Hey! Did you guys hear that I got picked to be a GUEST for VGMotD's GUEST WEEK?! Pretty cool. This is the big leagues, here. Of course, I picked something I already posted here like five years ago, so... I've got to piggyback off someone else's contribution to get any new material. Thanks, Nio!
Arisa is definitely my favorite song from Guest Week, excepting Dominance, which I picked. Even then it's sort of close though because Arisa is awesome. It sort of makes me think of, like... if Fatal Fight and Pleather for Breakfast fell in love and had a child. The vocals are my favorite part of this, but I can't really think of much to say about them except that they're unique and really neat.
The instrumentation is also great though, and has a lot more I can talk about, because it blends a lot of instruments really well. The most obvious is the fiddle or... some kind of bowed string instrument, which immediately sets the mood for the whole piece, that mood being "sort of chaotic". It's then mixed with an electric guitar, some kind of drums or bongos or something, and occasional interludes by a plucked string instrument(?) and a harmonica(?). (I am bad at this but I also think this song is just really hard to decipher.) A lot of these instruments are then seemingly distorted, or used so infrequently or for such brief periods of time, that the whole thing ends up having a sort of... primordial, always shifting quality to it. Sort of like Short Circuit in that regard, actually, which I guess makes sense, because they were both composed by Go Shiina.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Advanced
Jade Coccoon - Battle Theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RGCCP3Ql-4&feature=related
One thing i give credit for is that Jade Cocoon had some badass music. Considering this was the first monster capture game i ever played where the trainer literally can fight the monsters at first, this music felt like a fight for your life kind of deal at first.
Enrgeiz - Django's stage
http://thefluxnet.com/boards/post.php?board=13&topic=4322
I was very tempted to post the final fantasy theme from this game... but this deserved a bonus before i showed it for it's catchy tune.
Ehrgeiz - Prelude (Tifa's stage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg570Kr3vSc&feature=related
Yeah, you can't help but go nerdy for this song, especially in a fighting game. I mean, come on XD
Soul Reaver - Raziel's territory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLumii2UJoo
First game outside of Tomb Raider that could intimidate you with sheer size and feeling of music in my opinion.
Kagero - Footsteps of Despair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvoAoyN3i8o
Kagero was probably hands down the best the Deceptionist series had in terms of Dark music. Considering the story of the game, the game's music feels like it's trying to goad you into reminding us who is really more evil: them, or you?
Valkyrie Prfile - Doorway to Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voHL3XV5XYE&feature=related
Oh, yes. you're a badass Valkyrie flying around the Earth Realm. you need this theme to show off your powers. /smug
Valkyrie Profile - Battle with Fenrir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjebLP21KWg
It's just sucks that this song ended up being more badass compared to the final boss, but what can i say? It definitely made a good impact on the fight against a godly wolf.
Twisted Metal 2 - Los Angeles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLFok2t605k
Now there's some memories of cars blowing up, and this was a satisfying opening to a series as well.
Vigilantee 8 - Soundtrack 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MDT39jUycY&feature=related
Can't. Believe. I found this. <3 The joys of shooting alients and cars in a desert. Feels like a waste of time, but not with this tune going on.
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"But friends, i ask you. What is a GameCobra? From where does it come? Who are it's people?" - A Random Day on World of Warcraft
New Moderator
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI03FIyaAHY&hd=1
Guess what? I just found, as far as I can recall, my fourth ever video game track that has bagpipes! Did I mention I like bagpipes? Because I do. Mind you, out of what I have heard, this is the weakest of the four. Namely because there are sections of downtime which are not that interesting. The bagpipe parts are strong enough for me to still like it, but I wish they had cut down the length of those duller periods.
Rating: 6/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
This shifts between sections I like and ones I don't. Thankfully, it tends to stay on the good side most of the time, because when it goes to the dark side, it goes there hard. 6.5.
Jade Coccoon - Battle Theme
This basically does nothing that makes me sad, but also nothing that catches my notice all that much. Which isn't a bad thing, but it basically puts it around average for me. 5.0.
Enrgeiz - Django's stage
Another case where I feel this almost never leaves the buildup stage... and really needed to. I mean, that's not quite accurate here, but... 5.0.
Ehrgeiz - Prelude (Tifa's stage)
At least Prelude is leagues better than the FFVII Main Theme. I'm still not entirely sure why that song is so beloved! 5.0
Soul Reaver - Raziel's territory
There's this one part that plays fairly faintly in the background around 80 seconds in, that I feel I've heard somewhere else before, and that's going to bug me now. 5.0
Kagero - Footsteps of Despair
The chanting is pretty cool at times, but only at times and it really needed that to happen more because it was basically carrying this for me. 4.5
Valkyrie Prfile - Doorway to Heaven
Doorway to Heaven is okay, not my favorite VP piece, but definitely not bad. 5.0.
Valkyrie Profile - Battle with Fenrir
...I'm trying to remember if this played in A-Ending, because that's the only ending I got in VP, and I'm thinking this must have been B-Ending because I don't remember it. 4.0.
Twisted Metal 2 - Los Angeles
Like with Arisa this jumps between sections I like and sections I don't. I think it stays on the good side more often, but it's not quite as clear cut as Arisa, plus the ending of the song seems to be on a mission to make me rewrite this sentence. 5.5.
Vigilantee 8 - Soundtrack 3
Hmm, this reminds me of Jade Cocoon's Battle Theme in that it doesn't do anything that I don't particularly like, but also doesn't really do anything that I do particularly like. Which, again, isn't bad or anything. 5.0.
Mischief Makers
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lsDMbvzWTM&hd=1
One of the superior Ghost Trick pieces I was talking about. Well, the only one I can be sure of off the top of my head because I haven't heard all of the pieces from it. It's pretty good all of the time, but the section that starts at 1:45 is just fantastic. I really wish the whole piece could be like that, but alas, it is not.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-VkHstW_5A&hd=1
It's like some bizarre alien reggae!
~youtube commenter, on Red's Theme
you said it, youtube guy
So the plan was to not post this unless somebody liked Green's Theme; unfortunately, CG7 is as lazy as me and thus hasn't rated anything in like a year, and xp's 4/10 told me absolutely nothing, so you both have nobody but yourselves to blame if you don't like this. *crosses arms*
ANYWAY I think this is super cool and youtube guy up there explained it better than I could. It definitely has a sort of tropical feel to it, while being something wholly unique at the same time. It has a good beat, it's super fun, and it doesn't take itself too seriously, clearly. Can't ask for much more than that. I especially like the deeper vocals at for example 0:55 through 1:17, but really I just like the song in general and wish more games would step outside the box to try stuff like this.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
and xp's 4/10 told me absolutely nothing
That is a lie. That tells you I don't like it! I will have no part in the blame for this.
The deeper vocals are better in the sense that they're one of the few parts of this song that don't make me extremely sad. Because the other vocals just... aren't that good, IMO. 3.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9VhdKtaT5Y&hd=1
So, here's an example of a song that I think plays it very safe. It's good, but I don't think it takes too many risks. That's not a bad thing, as I said, I think it's a good piece. What's weird, to me, is that this reminds me of a whole bunch of different songs... and not all of them make much sense. I mean, I'm not even sure I'd guess Mitsuda immediately if you told me, but once you did I think I could make a convoluted chain in my mind that leads there eventually. ...And a bunch of other ones that don't and I just don't know what happened.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXYSsL0S_XA&hd=1
Unicorn, or: the song that took #4 in my rankings. That said, it's kind of a fraud. Apparently it's just a shorter version of a song from the anime. I say that it's only KIND OF a fraud because being shorter somehow makes it way, way better. Like they knew exactly which parts to cut out. But anyway...
Unicorn of course has vocals, but to me it doesn't really read as a vocals piece. There's just sort of there, being an instrument, and along with the war drums and bowed string instrument, they make the song incredibly powerful and impressive-sounding. As I mentioned in the ranking topic, my favorite part is 1:12 through 1:40; all the vocals disappear, leaving only the war drums and the bowed string instrument, and the combination creates such a tense atmosphere that's just... wonderful, and perfectly sets up the last burst of vocals before the song ends. That effect, by the way, is lost in the full version, which is just one reason of many that this version is superior.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGLWZoTxME&hd=1
This is one of my favorite battle themes from the Battle Network series. It plays during tournament matches in Battle Network 3, and is about a hundred times better than the normal battle theme. I wish it went on longer, because I really like what it does with the short amount of time it has. Since the game moves quickly, it is probably not something a player would notice, but listening to it out of the game makes the length pretty apparent.
Rating: 6.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw-lY8uXeoM&hd=1
Remember DORCHADAS? When I was searching for visual novel tracks, I found out that this was another song the same artist did. Her vocals are really good in this one too. The instruments could be better, but I do like that accordion. I am not sure whether I like how it speeds up for the chorus or not, as it seems like an abrupt shift. It would probably be a bit better if it stayed at the slower pace, but it is hard to say.
Rating: 6.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
This feels like a mess to me when it has everything going on at once. By default, this makes the section you point out likely the best, but eh... I don't know if it's sound quality or what. Just... doesn't come together well, IMO. 4.5.
Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue/White - Great Battlers
I suppose this is better than most Mega Man music I've heard, but that is not necessarily an accomplishment. I'll tentatively say it's slightly above average. Maybe. 5.5.
Shiei no Sona-Nyl - Rosa Morada
I was going to point out that I was pretty sure that the game title had more to it than you're saying, but I see I don't really need to do that because VGMotD does that for me! Faster sections are better in general, but eh. Rosa Morada is good, but I don't know if it's great. 6.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kULOcqGzTeo&hd=1
Mass Effect 3 actually has a pretty great soundtrack, though I never could quite figure out if I liked it more than Mass Effect 2. Leaving Earth might be my favorite piece from it, at least simply by remembering what I heard while playing it, with the exception of a few pieces that were brought over from ME2. One of my favorite parts of Leaving Earth is kind of... unmissable, and that's the contrast between the piano and the much harsher sounds. In-game I could tell you what they're meant to represent easily, but possible spoilers and all that, and I'm so bad at this I couldn't tell you what instrument that is making the sound here.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeE8Sy4fffo&hd=1
From the "probably would have been posted during love week if I had known about it back then" club. Also: the most aggressively re-ranked song from my half of the ranking topic. I think I had it at around 85 originally, and it moved up to 30ish from there. That's a big improvement!
Love is in the Air is, appropriately for its name, a rather breezy, laidback strings piece. It doesn't do anything particularly bombastic, but then it doesn't really need to. Love is in the Air projects this sort of warm, calming aura that I really like, and it makes me think of... I dunno, wasting away a lazy summer day outside, or any number of other relaxing pastimes like that.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
I suppose I can say this is inoffensive, but that's about as far as I can go as praise. Which arguably isn't really praise, but really it's not like I don't like this. I just don't really like it either. Kind of in the middle. So I will say 5.0.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtbKA1WreJY&hd=1
So this is a pretty neat chiptune, IMO. I think a lot of what I like about it is how much it does for a chiptune, it's probably one of the more complex/involved ones that I can think of (if that makes sense to anyone, which it may not, even to me), although that doesn't mean too much, because I am most certainly not an expert on chiptunes and have not heard all that many relatively speaking, IMO. I think my favorite part is that section that starts up about a minute in, but it's pretty good all around, if you ask me.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpUNj33sD9o&hd=1
The track I had the most rerankings for in the topic is probably one Kenri wants to post, so I will leave that alone and post this instead. This got number thirty-seven on my list and was submitted by tazzyboyishere. I really would have liked to have rated it higher for those vocals. They stand out as really lovely and it would be great if the whole track focused on it. Unfortunately, it goes into a few horn sections that I just do not see as good. I still enjoy it, just regret that it did not take the chance to be better.
Rating: 6/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYxvaixwybA&hd=1
My second favorite song from Shatter. Also: back when I posted Freon World, I thought I had already posted Homelands, and even though I realized I hadn't shortly thereafter, at some point since I started assuming that I MUST have posted it already, given that I thought I had posted it already, so clearly it was worth posting, and I was so low on material that I thought I MUST have posted it! Before! But I hadn't!
...
I think the word I'm looking for is "...anyway". Homelands starts out kinda strange and I don't really like it at first, but it quickly becomes a much more electric guitar-centric piece, at which point it becomes really good! It manages to use an electric guitar in such a chilled out way that whenever I think about this song, I just imagine it having an acoustic guitar instead. And then whenever I listen to it, at first I'm like "oh", but then I'm like "this makes it even cooler!" Also: at 3:06 is a really goddamn awesome section that you should all make a note of because it's like the best part of this awesome song, even if, to me at least, it's kind of dark sounding and thus doesn't really match up perfectly with the laidback guitar from earlier on.
By the way, if you don't like Shatter music, I've got good news for you, because this is the last piece from it I'm posting.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_D_YKnwi0&hd=1
So it seems Ninja Gaiden has some good music, which I hoped it would since I liked The Shooted (and seem to be alone with Epyon in that regard...). I have also seen this referred to as Act 4-2, but on tvtropes, where I first listened to it, it was called Ryu's Determination. I will go with that, it sounds better. This is a fairly nice chiptune. Not one of my favorites, but good enough for me to like it, namely for its fast and catchy beat.
Rating: 5.5/10
Ninja Gaiden Shadow - Ryu's Determination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5gomNT6auU&hd=1
This was used in Stage 3 and is a somewhat better version, in my opinion. They are fairly close to each other though and I could go either way. I guess it depends more on what type of chip tune you would want to hear.
Rating: 5.5/10
Warriors Orochi 3 - Ryu's Theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jaIUlz-wNU&hd=1
And here is my favorite version. The wind instruments and overall other better instruments are the reason why. It sounds plain better overall while keeping the good qualities the other two versions had. I guess Ryu is a magnet for good themes. Or, at least, themes I really like.
Rating: 7.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tah7HkUkTUY&hd=1
So, I believe this was my favorite of recurring AT1 battle themes, not including hymns. What really makes me like this piece is the section that starts at 0:48, all the way until to 1:22, which is almost where the loop begins, so that's a fairly large section of the song, relatively speaking!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis - Disruptor
Well this is better than Nefertiti. Other than that it's just... battle music. Like even though it's got a leading electric guitar which is sort of unique for battle music, it can't escape sounding really generic.
5/10
The Legend of Dragoon - If You Still Believe
So... this is your I Am the Wind, eh? <_<
It really does start off slowly, xp is very right about that. But I think it improves by about 1000% at 1:40ish, and unlike xp I don't think it drags around the end; the beginning is the only part with which I have a problem regarding the pacing. I honestly like the lead vocalist's voice too, so no issues there. The lyrics are kinda cheesy but whatever, it's a love song, it's allowed a certain degree of that and I think it's well within acceptable limits there. Especially like "If from where you're standing, you can see the sky above / I'll be waiting for you, if you still believe in love"; that's a pretty cool pair of lines.
...I have my doubts regarding how appropriate this is for a JRPG, but without playing it I cannot say, and regardless I can't really factor that into my rating!
7/10
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger - Under Heaven Destruction
This is... significantly better than most BlazBlue music I've heard. Unlike EVERY OTHER TRACK THAT ****ING TRIES THIS (LOOKING AT YOU GUILTY GEAR), Under Heaven Destruction segues almost seamlessly from the intro to the main part of the song. It helps that the intro is fairly high energy on its own, so when it switches over from classical instruments to an electric guitar, it's like, hey, what else were you expecting? Instead of SORRY I WAS ONE SONG BUT NOW I'M A DIFFERENT SONG. Later on UHD starts doing some weirder stuff that I'm not a huge fan of, but whatever, everything before that is good.
6/10
The Bouncer - Love is the Gift
oh man it sure is lousy R&B in here
what is this the ED to the third pokemon movie or something
...god there are 5 minutes left
okay that instrumental section was decent. that's literally the only redeeming value in this entire song. NEXT.
1/10
.hack//G.U. Vol 3//Redemption - Carl's Theme
The quality does seem a bit low on this but whatever. This is okay, but it's... I dunno, just kind of unexceptional. However, it is a WELCOME REPRIEVE after Love is the Gift so I must make sure to not give it an extra 2 points or something.
5.5/10
Seihou Suushou Gyoku - The Witch's Ball ~ Magus
Oh hey it's carnival music.
Well, it's about on that level anyway, being kind of bouncy and obnoxious.
2.5/10
Touhou Project: Immaterial and Missing Power - Dance of Witches
This is better. That's not saying much. But it is better. The violin or whatever almost balances out the bouncy obnoxiousness but then it doesn't. Whoops.
3/10
Seihou Shuusou Gyoku - The Witch's Ball ~ Magus (Golden City Factory Remix)
This is... somewhat more tolerable. In fact at times it approaches "good". Maybe because a thing's bounce is correlated with the speed at which it travels, and thus by slowing the song down, it's less bouncy? I dunno.
5/10
Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica - EXEC_HIBERNATION/.
If anything actually happened here, I missed it somewhere in the middle of all the "nothing happening" for minutes at a time. This could have been two minutes long and looped seven times and I wouldn't have noticed. This goes so far beyond not having a justifiable length that I have absolutely no idea what to do in terms of score. Probably gonna default to the harshest possible option. If this was 5 minutes long it would be too long by about 4:45 because it's never interesting at all. At 14 we start approaching the point where I'd rather listen to something more painful, but shorter, just because the opportunity cost is lower. The instrumentation is boring. The vocalists are boring - CG7's right that it sounds like the main vocalist's reciting something; specifically, it sounds like she's reciting the song's lyrics rather than actually putting in some effort and singing them. The lyrics are boring - and I was so bored that I actually looked them up, only to find that it was a bad idea if I wanted to reduce my boredom. And now I'm taking the piss out of this song just because it's the only thing that can keep me going.
wait
the last 40 seconds or so are kinda good
NEXT.
1/10
Pocket Tanks - Fabric of Time
This is really good, and yes, I too was really disappointed when it turned out that Pocket Tanks doesn't have much music. "Chill" is absolutely the right term for this, too, so you're right on two accounts.
7.5/10
Mirror's Edge - Still Alive
Let's just dispel this myth first of all. This is not as good as Portal's Still Alive. It's not even close. Less unique, less interesting, worse lyrics, worse vocals. Might give you instrumentation.
It is DECENT though I mean I sort of enjoy listening to it but my god the lyrics are lazy. It's the kind of thing you'd whip up in 5 minutes given the song's title and nothing else to work with. The rhymes are incredibly lazy or just non-existant and there's nothing subtle about it at all. When sung, it sounds... adequate... but it would sound better if it was better. Especially if you're going to compare it to the other Still Alive, which has insanely clever lyrics.
Whatever.
6/10
Xanadu Next - Evildoer
Uhhh it's decent. Probably a bit better than Disruptor. I dunno. It doesn't really escape from being YAOBT though.
5.5/10
Grandia II - A Deus
whoooo songs in languages other than english/japanese/latin/hymmnos
I appreciate the attempt, I really do, but this is boooooring and I don't usually bust out the boring complaint for songs. It's a woman singing really slowly with a harp or some such in the background every now and then. I just want some kind of intensity, and I don't necessarily mean it needs to be faster, it just needs to be less... vanilla. This is about as bland and safe as I can possibly imagine a song with vocals being.
4/10
Touhou Project: Ten Desires - Desire Drive
So this had potential but then it didn't go anywhere with said potential. And then it got repetitive. And then I wanted it to end but it was only like half over. Welp.
4/10
Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm - Rain of Blossoms
Yeah, Rain of Blossoms is pretty cool. It does a lot of stuff I like and very little I don't. I'm especially fond of... god I have no idea what it actually is. It comes in at 0:11 for instance. To me it sort of sounds like heavily, heavily distorted vocals, but I'm fairly confident it's actually an instrument of some sort. Also really like the section at 1:30. OVERALL GOOD SONG ZONE.
6.5/10
Armored Core: For Answer - Today
Um, this is weird. I can't say I really dislike what this does, but I feel like it needs to do more, e.g. vary the intensity of the vocals to make them less same-y. It almost does this about halfway through but doesn't quite get there.
5/10ish
Cladun: This is an RPG - Knight of a Foreign Country
not as good as slicing the wind. it's... sort of good, though. It gets better as it goes on, the intro's kinda weak. After about 45 seconds I start liking it a lot more. Still not as good as Slicing the Wind though.
6/10
Super Meat Boy - Can o' Salt
I have literally no idea what CG7 is talking about in regards to this song. That said I don't really like it either. The main beat's kinda grating and the whole thing starts feeling repetitive after a minute or so.
3.5/10
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift - Sword of Doom
...The sound quality seems really bad on this. Like it's super quiet for some reason and I can't imagine that's how it sounds in-game.
Anyway. You're absolutely right about this; it starts off kinda slow, then gets really good, then gets... significantly less good. But even then it's not bad.
6.5/10
Fatal Frame IV - NOISE
Not as good as Butterfly or Zero no Chouritsu, probably better than Koe. I like the slower parts better just because the main vocalist seems to be having SOME ISSUES singing loudly. It's a bit too long, too, but I really do like those slower sections. Eh.
6/10
Suikoden II - Gothic Neclord Battle
Well, this is "okay" and a battle theme, but I'm not really sure if it's YAOBT. At least it's sorta unique.
5/10
Chaos Legion - Feel No Fear
This is pretty cool. It sort of reminds me of Location of Power, except not as good. I do like it, though. You're right that the vocals contrast nicely with the... pretty much everything else.
6/10
Radiant Historia - An Earnest Desire of Grey
This is actually really cool. Bowed string instruments are really under-utilized for battle themes, which doesn't make much sense because they're perfect for them, as this song demonstrates. I think I agree with you that the quieter parts are better, but I think I'd extend that a bit further and say it's more like the few absolute loudest parts are worse. Doesn't hurt the song much overall though.
6.5/10
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - Theme of Last Time Travel
One of those ones I always felt was overrated. I don't dislike it, though. ...Not sure how you can possibly like this more than Puzzle 5 (Live Version) but whatever!
5/10
Street Fighter IV - Theme of Sakura
Maybe I've just been conditioned by Guilty Gear and BlazBlue to think all fighting games sound like that.
no some fighting games have music that is actually good
Anyway, this is neat. It mixes more traditional instruments with electronic effects, and it works out quite well. Helps also that it uses a lot instruments I like, I guess.
7/10
Digital: A Love Story - Paper Dolls
Good song zone. As I said in the ranking topic, I like pretty much everything here except that it gets a bit too high pitched for me at points. Definitely like the intro and ending, though; very unique and personally appealing.
7/10
Mass Effect - M4 Part 2
Ahaha, oh man this song is a disaster. It does the whole "washed out vocals" thing for the entire song and it's super annoying and cheesy. The instrumentation's about as unexciting as it comes. When I heard this at the end of Mass Effect I thought it was cheesy; if I heard this on the radio I'd think it was bad; and being forced to endure 8 minutes of it now has not improved either of those opinions.
2/10
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift - Nightmare Fiction
Well, at best this is sort of mediocre, and the rest of the time it's sort of not.
2.5/10
Super Meat Boy - Carmeaty Burana
THE PING-PONG, THE PING-PONG, THE THE THE THE THE THE PING-PONG
Uhhh this is okay I guess. I dunno. It didn't really do anything to make me like it or hate it, but then it went on sorta long.
4.5/10
Sega Ages 2500 Vol 5: Golden Axe - Battle Field
I dunno if it reminds me of Shimomura, but it's decent enough.
5.5/10
Ever17 - Karma
Ehhh. This is good. I prefer a lot of the piano pieces I've posted so far, though. It's also not as good as the 360 version NO MATTER WHAT LEFTY TELLS ME
6/10
Lamento: Beyond the Void - Denshou no Shi -Verum-
This might be the first song in Latin I've ever heard that didn't go the whole ominous route. It's pretty cool! But then the novelty wears off and... it's still pretty cool. Yay!
7/10
ef: a fairy tale of the two - Regained Time
...Not a big fan of this, and I'm really not sure why. It's too upbeat or something. only horrifically depressing music can make me happy.
5/10
Togainu no Chi - STILL
this isn't grind
man and i was excited for a minute there
But yeah, the quality of this seems... off. It's very... squeaky, and yet somehow muddy sounding at the same time. Even aside from that, it's uh. Sort of unexceptional.
4.5/10
Is there a reason I keep running into good tracks from boy love visual novels?
Same reason people who swim in the ocean find lots of fish?
(Please do not answer that.)
Request denied.
Sekien no Inganock - Right Hand From Behind
sorry i already posted everything good from sekien no inganock. you had the right idea, but you were too slow.
4/10
I do not even want to know where it came from.
you sure
because i can explain this
Baldr Force - Face of Fact
Decent to good. The unique effects and stuff save this. Rest of the song is unextraordinary.
6/10
Demonbane - Those Who Will Challenge the Divine Will
Well this is... pretty bad. At least it's original, I guess. It would be better if it spent that originality doing things other than being generally obnoxious though.
2/10
Princess Waltz - Battlefield of Steel
This is pretty okay. Especially compared to that last thing. Kind of like that background beat, combined with the vocals. It's unusual, but it works. I think. I'm not 100% sure.
6/10
Kanon - Sea of Mist
Uhhhh this is inoffensive. ...That's really all I can say about it. It's really just sort of there.
4.5/10
Utawarerumono - Forever
So I listened to Forever and immediately afterwards, I literally could not think of a single defining feature of it. It doesn't do anything that isn't done better by dozens and dozens of other songs, and then to make things worse it's really slow and plodding.
4/10
Grandia II - FIGHT!! Ver. 4
This is a... decent... battle theme. Parts of it definitely do register as upbeat, like you said; these are also the better parts. Unfortunately it spends a lot of time creating this whole start-and-stop effect with the percussion which is... not good. Maybe it's just me but it gets really hard to listen to during those sections.
4.5/10
Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 - Hawkeye
So this is like... half techno, half jazz. It sort of works? I think it's okay, at least.
5/10
X-Men ~ Children of the Atom - Stage: Space Port - Juggernaut's theme
Uh this is pretty cool, though it's hurt by... I dunno, some weird quality issues. Like it's not in stereo or something. Not sure. It's kinda irritating though.
4.5/10
Marvel Super Heroes : Captain America
This pretty cool, actually. but it is not super-cool, despite being both cool and the theme of a super. ...though i guess the cap'n isn't really a super, is he. whatever.
5.5/10
Marvel Vs. Capcom - Onslaught
I agree with xp vis-a-vis the beginning and the not-beginning and them being different! Not sure which is better. But they're both pretty okay. So yeah.
5.5/10
MvC1 - Roll's theme
the best version of roll's theme. SUPER CUTE and also the best. I like this song more than is reasonable for a male in his twenties.
7/10
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Editor
Indignant Divinity is sort of cool. I also do not know how to refer to songs in this style! I think I've heard them called "9-bit" once but that name is fuckin' stupid. But anyway, I don't think it compares favorably to similar songs from like... VVVVVVVVVVV. It's OKAY though I guess.
5/10
Aquaria - Bright Waters
Not the best from Aquaria (not even close (but at least better than Undiscovered Waters or Dark Places)). It's fairly lively at least, and it works really well in-game (you should play this (it's like Castlevania but underwater)).
5.5/10
Wild ARMs 5 - Justice to Believe
I literally cannot think of a single distinguishing characteristic of this. Hey, I think I've said that for the last two Nana Mizuki songs too! That's either a coincidence or not a coincidence.
5/10
Steins;Gate - Gate of Steiner
Sort of good. And not what I was expecting. SORRY BUT WHEN YOU POST A SONG FROM A VN AND GIVE IT AN 8.5 I JUST ASSUME IT'LL HAVE VOCALS. Anyway, this is... interesting...? but it's not always successful.
5/10
Mass Effect 2 - Suicide Mission
Suicide Mission is pretty decent. Think it's overrated though. Didn't deserve to go as far as it did in the VGMC5. ...Or maybe it did, I dunno, I can't remember what it was up against.
5.5/10
Tales of Symphonia - Starry Heavens
i have no idea why i let you have this. should have counter-trolled by immediately posting it after you posted face of fact. but whatever.
Heeeey Starry Heavens is pretty good! At first I thought it was just KINDA GOOD but now I think it is PRETTY GOOD. such is my wont. it's not on the level of Ring a Bell or Karma, but it's still a cut above a lot of Jpop, including Jpop from other Tales games (protip: don't post the OP from Graces unless you want me to make you very sad).
7/10, but a low one of those. *crosses arms*
Soul Calibur V - Venice Rooftops
Really good. Probably the best use of the ASSASSIN'S CREED VOCALS that I've heard (way better than Ezio's Family). But I just talked about this in the ranking topic so I refuse to talk about it at length again.
7/10, but a high one of those. (**** you starry heavens)
Dawn of War 2
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9UTnUcyED0&hd=1
From the pile of songs I've wanted to post for a while but keep putting off, except now I'm utterly terrified they could be stolen from me at any moment. It's a small pile. Because people keep ****ing stealing from it. <_<
But yeah, Agony's Main Theme (which I've also seen called Introduction or Intro) is pretty good. I want to say it's a piano piece, but I'm not entirely sure, and given it's on the Amiga, it's probably not a real instrument in any case. I do think it sounds kinda different from most other Main Themes or Intro songs, because, to me at least, it's a lot darker and more tragic sounding. At least it is during the slower parts, which are also a lot better than the faster parts. The faster parts are a bit more upbeat, or... again, at least they feel that way to me.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
I'd like to say this is simply completely unremarkable. Unfortunately, I can not. Because it keeps moving its focus from the left side and to the right and back and forth, at an annoying frequency that is legitimately kind of painful. Perhaps one day I will understand why any song would want to do this. 3.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5IPXecftQ&hd=1
This is .hack//G.U.'s normal boss theme... which might be better than most of its not-normal boss themes, honestly. Which is a bit unfortunate, but whatever, I think this results in it playing slightly more, so there is that at least. There's not too much more for me to say, the style is pretty distinct and similar to other songs from G.U. and I've already gone on forever over a number of other times what and why I like it.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
I legitimately have no idea what you're talking about. Is this another headphone thing? Because I question whether the Amiga could even output sound in stereo. >_>
Here, try this link instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiFlZULOZ4c&hd=1
I have no idea which is more accurate but this one should reflect what I've heard literally every single time I've listened to the song before just now, with headphones.
.hack//G.U. Vol 1//Rebirth - Boss Battle
This is pretty decent, yeah. I don't think I'd say it's better than the not-normal boss themes from .hack you've posted, though. But then I can barely keep track of which ones those are.
5.5/10
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnZbtzg-klk&hd=1
CG7 graciously allowed me to have this one, which I guess makes up for Starry Heavens???
Coming in at #17 on my rankings, we have Diabolosis! This is like the second track I've heard from a King of Fighters game and the second one I've really liked. You'd think that would cause me to seek out more songs from the series, but I'm just so damn lazy.
Like with Mutually Exclusive Dichotomy, this song is really ****ing dark and it's wonderful because of that. It's also another song to add to the pile of songs with a leading electric guitar that I don't hate, a pile that is enormous and yet apparently indistinguishable from the pile of songs with a leading electric guitar that I do hate. So, there is that. Diabolosis gets kind of repetitive as it goes on, but I honestly don't mind at all: first of all, because I'm pretty sure it loops, and second, because it's really good so 4 minutes of it is fine with me.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."